Posts Tagged ‘texting’

Why Is The Ipad So Popular?

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Apple is more than just an industry leader. They don’t just modify their technology, or their competitor’s technology, so it’s an upgraded version of what came before. Their devices are as multi-purposed as they are user friendly. They are sleek, stylish, and due to their “app” technology, they are becoming more and more useful each day. It’s no surprise that this philosophy is embodied most in their latest creation, the Ipad. It is a combination of the device’s physical aspects and its programming that make it the most sought after device on the market today.

The device combines an Iphone’s portability with the power and usability of a laptop. It’s got the best of both worlds. It is light and thin, yet it’s got a screen large enough to be user-friendly, something that Ipod and Iphone users sometimes complain about. Tying and reading is easier. As much as Apple laptops were, and still are, awfully portable, they are cumbersome compared to the Ipad. The device doesn’t fold out: it’s called a pad for a reason. The keyboard and the screen are the same thing, so it’s the most efficient use of space. It does for laptops what the touch screen Ipod did to the older wheel models.

The thing that separates the device most from laptops is its use of applications. Laptops don’t use these at all, and the Ipad has more, and better, apps than the smaller Iphones. Their use grows everyday because people can program them on their own, but there are a staple group of applications that are especially well adapted for the Ipad. This is particularly true for reading applications.

For years, there’s been a perceived tension between print media and digital media; books versus screens. This new device represents the resolution of this so called conflict. It is at once so light, the proportions are so small, and it’s touch screen is so advanced that it gives the user the feel of curling up with it and reading. It’s not a static screen that hurts your eyes. Right now, designers are working around the clock trying to make the Ipad feel less advanced to give nostalgic lovers of print that feeling they get from interacting with pages. Ironically, the device’s greatest advancement is its ability to feel like one of our oldest technologies-books.

But to be sure, there are countless apps that appear to belong more in a science fiction movie than in contemporary life. You can control the steering wheel of a race car by simply moving the device; you can check whether your flight is on time; you can find out all the events happening in your geographic location and plan your evening accordingly. With literally thousands of Cell phones and apps out there it’s impossible to list them all, and most of them cannot be fully appreciated without actually interacting with it on your own. The most important things to note is how their function transcends any one demographic: whatever you require, or are simply interested in, there’s an app for you. The list is growing, and they are becoming increasingly intuitive. It’s the combination of size, user-friendliness, and endless functions that make the Ipad the most popular piece of technology on the market.

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Should Cell Phones Be Allowed In Schools?

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

It was inevitable that technological increases will clash with the rules of the traditional classroom, and no example is more pertinent than whether cell phones should be permitted in schools. Without historical precedent to determine a course or action, the only recourse is to weigh the pros and cons against each other and logically determine a reasonable conclusion.

A damning consideration against cell phone use in schools is the fact that, with smart phones, students can cheat during tests. It’s not hard to access Wikipedia or text message someone in the class for assistance. However, there is really nothing new here, even if the medium is different. It’s not really harder to glance at a screen than it is a well prepared cheat note. Besides, it’s easy for teachers to collect cell phones on test days, and vigilantly keeping guard against cheating is something teachers have to do anyway.

The strongest and most obvious case against cell phone possession in class is their distracting nature. Even if the ringer is turned off (something students frequently forget to do), text messaging is so ubiquitous and subtle that it’s hard for teachers to control. But teachers have contended against inventive distractions for decades, and even if smart phones are more advanced than passing notes it isn’t fundamentally very different. From the students perspective, they’re motivated by the same urge.

On the positive side, every school has a lockdown procedure in the event of an emergency. While it’s true that varying messages can cause confusion and worry amongst parents and outsiders concern for students, the ability to contact police immediately outweighs this concern. In the tragic event of a school shooting, warnings can be sent from classroom to classroom and a line can be established warning police. Yes, it’s possible for students to give false alarms and mischievously cause delay in the classrooms, but the real possibility of saving lives must be given more prominence than the disadvantages of student nuisance (something they don’t need cell phones to cause anyway).

Cell phones have provided benefits that a couple decades ago would have been considered unimaginable to attain on a wide scale. For years, schools were looking for ways to fund computers in the classroom and people protested the gap between the public and private schools’ ability to do this. Even in inner city schools, it’s not uncommon to have a student in each classroom with the ability to use the internet as a resource on behalf of the class. Even where this isn’t the case, smart phones are going to get cheaper and cheaper.

Cell phones have the ability to amplify historic problems of distraction, nuisance, and cheating. These problems create the need for modified solutions for the old problems. But the positive aspects they can deliver are new and groundbreaking. It would be a shame to allow fear and reservation to prevent us from enjoying such obvious benefits. We need visionaries uninhibited by reactionary attachments to tradition to guide policy concerning the implementation of technical advances in the classroom.

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Teens’ Texting Takes Toll In Car Crash Traffic Accidents

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Today’s youths are growing up almost as attached to their cell phones, PDA’s, iPod’s and other mobile electronic devices as they were upon birth to an umbilical cord. By the time they learn to drive, they have the habit and won’t let go. The trouble is, driving while calling, texting or checking the Internet can be fatal.

Recent studies show an increase in teen car crash traffic accident fatalities that’s attributable to two things: more driving by teens at night, and more driving by teens while texting or using a cell phone.

In the years between 1999 and 2008, nighttime fatal car crashes with teen drivers rose by 10 per cent. Night driving deaths increased at a lesser rate for older drivers, and driving fatalities overall declined in this time.

A senior research specialist for the Texas Transportation Institute, Bernie Fetts, told the Associated Press that the increased deaths come from a “perfect storm” of key elements. One is driving at night, which is inherently more risky for anybody in any age group. Another is texting or calling while driving, which impacts a person’s ability to focus on driving.

Frequently teens stress that it doesn’t matter, because they’re so skilled at sending texts. Bu regardless of their fluency or dexterity, texting diverts a portion of their attention from the far more vital task of driving, where a single moment of distraction can cause a fatal result. Indeed, about 6,000 Americans die annually because of drivers who talk, text or email, and about half a million will suffer injuries.

Americans are starting to become alarmed about the severe effects of texting or calling while driving. That’s why 23 states so far have passed laws to ban texting while driving. The national organization FocusDriven, based in Grapevine, TX, was created to fight distracted driving due to cell phones or texting, much as Mothers Against Drunk Driving was formed to fight DUI car crashes.

Talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey has weighed in with her own initiative, a pledge signup by teens called a “No Phone Zone.” By signing, teens avow that they will not text or use their cell phone while driving.

Jim S. Adler & Associates strongly supports such safe driving measures and urges everyone to save their texts and phone calls for a proper time – when they aren’t driving a multi-ton vehicle at high speeds in complex traffic. Today’s teens may think such texting and calling won’t divert them from driving safely, but those who have perished in texting car accidents prove otherwise. Texting car crash accidents can happen, and that unexpected first time may prove to be a fatal last time.

Jim S. Adler & Associates is a longtime Texas personal injury law firm with offices in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Channelview. The law firm offers a free case review and represents victims of auto, car, SUV, truck, motorcycle, bus and other traffic accidents, as well as drunk driving accidents.